Also helpful is this online edition of Roget's International Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases. (A thesaurus is a dictionary of antonyms and synonyms--words which have either similar or opposite denotations (more or less the basic concept or meaning), with an eye towards the varying connotations (or subtle differences of meaning).

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Bêthberry

For those of you who are interested in parsing sentence structure, here is an Internet Grammar of English from University College London.

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from alaklondewen

Have you ever been stuck trying to find the perfect word? I found this page while browsing the site from a link Pio posted on the Shire RPG resources thread.

While it's mainly geared toward more "traditional" role playing, this site has tips for everything from directing a group of evil characters to writing villans to creating every daay NPCs. I've found it extremely useful when you're out of inspiration or you're tired of the same old situations.

Here's how to make those characters used in spelling and to show pronunciation of Elvish Words (+ a few other interesting letters you may or may not need):

Press and hold down the ALT key while typing the four number code on your NUMPAD, then release ALT.
(On some laptops without a separate number pad on the keyboard you will need to press the ALT+FN keys together while typing the number code)

On most computers with Windows, you can click on Start then All Programs then System Tools then Character Map. This brings up a handy tool for finding all those odd and assorted characters not usually found on a standard American keyboard. You can select the character you want, copy it, and insert it into your document, post, etc.
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From Bêthberry:

Want some help writing some inspired Sindarin or Khazdul? Looking for some Black Speech to lend a bit of colour to your orc characterization? Try these links.

These sources are far more esoteric. These are online links to English translations of some of the old mythologies. They are for those fans who wish to immerse themselves in the literature which inspired Tolkien, perhaps coming to understand that inspiration better as a way of writing Tolkien-inspired work. They will be for reading on those dark fall and winter nights which approach us (well, those of us in the northern parts of the northern hemisphere!).

The Beowulf translation is not my favourite; that honour belongs to Seamus Heaney's 2000 bilingual edition, but unfortunately I cannot find even a sample of it online. This one looks good, though; done by W.H. Auden 'tis claimed. (I wonder if there is a Tolkien translation available?) I cannot vouch for the other translations.

This site, Mysterious Britian gives brief summaries of the legends and folktales of ancient Britain.

The stories here can help us create an imaginative space for thinking about the resources which Tolkien drew upon for his stories. How could we recreate some of these figures in a Middle-earth context?

Of special interest for Tolkienophiles may be the resources on Christianity (Tolkien liked Augustine I think), the complete Anglo-Saxon corpus, Prose and Poetic Edda, the Norse Annals and lists of rulers, and the Kalevala.

You can look through the database and look through lists of names, occupations, offices, landholdings, statuses (social, but not just limited to 'class'), etc. You can even look at what specific possessions people were noted as having in various records. So useful at least for getting ideas for names and occupations and maybe for coming up with character's lifestyles.

In researching for my role as the miller I came across a wonderful article and calendar of the agricultural schedule in medieval Europe. Anyone wanting to play a farmer or know the appropriate activities on a farm or what food would be available at any particular time of year would get a lot out of this link.

Thought of another resource- more than once in MUSHing, I've been helped by looking at pictures of medieval tapestries. I think the visual element really helps in picturing in your mind what a ceremony or battle might realistically look like. The link below is the Bayeux tapestry which has all kinds of war scenes:

Sigrid Unset's novels set in the Middle Ages have also helped me to visualize the society of Middle Earth and are great reading to boot. People (women, probably [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]) who think Tolkien skimped on love stories or told them without enough passion might understand why by reading a medieval love story. Still passionate, but definitely not Hollywood.

If you would like to choose a name for a character, but don't want it to be in one of the Elf languages, you can go to one of the many foreign language dictionaries or phrase books online and come up with some great names for characters. For example: here's a great site I found when trying to come up with a character name once:

On sailing ships crews were divided into teams so as to share all work. These teams were called watches. On the North Wind, Meri Loliway has the command of one watch, Frenchy--now Marx, as residing second mate--takes charge of the second.

The day was broken up into time periods--also called watches--as follows:

A typical day would have a sailor working alternate watches, a system called "watch and watch," in this fashion:

off during midwatch; work morning watch;
off forenoon watch; work afternoon watch;
off first dog watch; work second dog watch;
off night watch.

This meant that on the following day the sailor's schedule would be:

Work during midwatch; off morning watch;
work forenoon watch; off afternoon watch;
work first dog watch; off second dog watch;
work night watch.

And so on....

This pattern of watch and watch meant that no sailor ever had more than four hours sleep at a time. Of course, if there was a need, such as general reseting or overhaul of the sails--or a storm--all hands could be called, and they would report even if it was not their watch. (Or if it was a battle!)

To keep track of time, the mates rang the ship's bell every half hour. They did it this way:

Basic Terminology - This site will cover what different terms mean, such as mare, filly, colt, stallion, gelding, etc. Some of these words aren't exactly Tolkienish, mainly those in the Other Words category

Return of the King – Appendix F: Tolkien’s description for the Quendi (The Speakers) – the name given to the Elves by themselves after they first awoke in Middle-earth.

“They were a race high and beautiful, the older Children of the world, and among them the Eldar were as Kings, who now are gone: the People of the Great Journey, the People of the Stars. They were tall, fair of skin and grey-eyed, though their locks were dark, save in the golden house of Finrod; and their voices had more melodies than any mortal voice that is now heard . . .”

Please use this as a guideline for crafting your Elven character’s appearance.

~*~*~*~*~

Quendi (The Speakers) is the name given to the Elves by themselves, when they first awoke. The Vala, Oromë, when he found the Elves after their awakening, named them the Eldar (People of the Stars). After the summons of the Valar to return to the West, the name Eldar was used only for those three branches of the Elven race who answered the call and did complete the journey: Noldor, Vanyar, and most of the Teleri (the Nandor and Sindar were the names of the groups of Telerin who turned back from the journey).

The Nandor (Telerin; meaning ‘Those who turn back’. Also called LaiQuendi: the Green Elves of Ossiriand) were a woodland people (Silvan Elves) for the most part

So saying – All of Elven kind are clustered under the name ‘Quendi’ – and since there are exceedingly few intermarriages of Man and Elf, (and I have read papers on genotyping where the Elven characteristics would most likely take dominance), there is nothing introduced into the gene pool of the Elves which would produce green eyes for an Elf.

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~*~ The Avari ~*~

The Silmarillion was not Tolkien’s final thoughts on the subject matter contained within its covers. This is a reference from The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Humphrey Carpenter, with the assistance of Christopher Tolkien.

From Letter #144, where Tolkien talks about the Elves, or Quendi, as they originally called themselves:

Quote:

They are represented as having become early divided in to two, or three varieties. 1. The Eldar who heard the summons of the Valar or Powers to pass from Middle-earth over the Sea to the West; and 2. the Lesser Elves who did not answer it. Most of the Eldar after a great march reached the
Western Shores and passed over the Sea; these were the High Elves, who became immensely enhanced in powers and knowledge. But part of them in the event remained in the coast-lands of the North-west: these were the Sindar or the Grey-elves. The lesser Elves hardly appear, except as part of the people of the Elf-realm; of Northern Mirkwood, and of Lórien, ruled by the Eldar; their languages do not appear.

The Avari would be part of the Lesser Elves that Tolkien spoke of. And it would appear that he is saying they are subsumed into the Silvan (Woodland Elves) realms of Northern Mirkwood (Greenwood the Great) and Lórien.

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One last thing – It is not correct to equate the term Dark Elf solely with the Avari. The term includes the Elves who turned back from starting the great Journey, the Nandor and the Sindar, as well as the Avari (tr. ‘Those who refused the summons’ – or ‘The Unwilling’)

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The Peoples of Middle-earth, The Appendix of Languages, pg 79

“For there were other Elves of various kind in the world; and many were Eastern Elves that had hearkened to no summons to the Sea, but being content with Middle-earth remained there, and remained long after, fading into fastnesses of the woods and hills, as Men usurped the lands. Of that kind were the Elves of Greenwood the Great; yet among them also were many lords of Sindarin race. Such were Thranduil and Legolas his son. In his realm and in Lorien both the Sindarin and the woodland tongues were heard; but of the latter nothing appears in this book, and of many Elvish names of persons or of places are used most are of Grey-elven form.”

With respect to questions of Avari/east-elves, J.R.R. Tolkien seems to have semi-intentionally blurred the matter of the Teleri-Nandor (initially Noldor-Danian), which split off before crossing the Misty Mountains, remembering also that there were other offshoots and lingerers (almost exclusively Teleri) between the first and second sundering of the Great March.

Consistently, the terms "East-elves" and “Eldar” should not be seen as mutually exclusive. In fact, the Nandor, and later the Silvan Elves in large part, were to some degree both: they were neither true Eldar, nor true Avari.

The true Avari were of all three kindreds, and at most, only some of them had gone just a very little way on the Great March before turning back completely and returning to Cuiviénen. But later they did spread out, and some probably wondered westward and joined up with Telerin Elves, who had turned aside in regions around what became the Sea of Rhûn or lands further west. This happened over ages and ages of time.

The Teleri, who turned aside at the Misty Mountains and were led by Lenwë south along the eastern side the Misty Mountains—i.e., the Nandor—eventually spread (as well) throughout southern Eriador and probably into what became Gondor through the early Second Age. Recall that Shelob had once had Elven victims.

These were not safe areas, however. Morgoth and his creatures terrorized areas east of the Ered Luin, hence the removal of many if not most of these Elves to Ossiriand under Denethor's leadership. Later in the Second Age, these Nandorin elves of Eriador and the lower Anduin would have fallen victim to Sauron's hegemony as it issued out of Mordor.

The Nandor who survived, but had not become the Green Elves of Beleriand, ended up mostly in the Upper Vales of Anduin. Here they acquired help from Grey and Green-Elves out of Beleriand, as well as Galadriel, and later some High-Elven refugees from Eregion. Quite probably, Amroth and his father were direct descendents of Lenwë.

Through the Second Age and Third Age these "Silvan Elves" were more and more concentrated in either Lothlórien or the northeast sector of Greenwood the Great, especially when it became Mirkwood under the Necromancer's influence. The rise of Dol Guldor thus contributed to the decline of intercourse between these two remnant—but still throughout the Third Age—thriving communities.

Who were they then by this point? Still to some extent "Eldarin" Nandor, to be sure, as would be necessary for explaining why Amroth, Nimrodel and others would have been drawn and allowed to pass over the Sea. Like Legolas, who might have been at least half-Nandor, these Eastern Eldar seem to have gone always through Gondor, where their ancestors may have also once wandered. The Grey Havens seem mostly reserved for the Beleriandic Eldar.

The Silvan Elves were not so much Nandorin in any pure or direct sense, however. Likely, they were augmented with other (Telerin) lingerers from the Great March east of Anduin, who had eventually wandered further westward, as well as significant numbers of true Avari. There were also eastward-moving Laiquendi and Sindar, who desired to return to simpler ways and were assimilated as part of Silvan society.

Arguably, this best describes the Wood-Elves (and raft-elves) of Thranduil's realm by the late Third-Age, which probably had significant representation from Beleriandic Elves or their descendents—as much as 10 percent or even more—but included no High-Elves. The great majority were likely still of Nandorin-blood (20–40 percent) and those of more eastern extraction (50–70 percent). The language spoken there seems disputed. It may have been a surviving "Silvan" dialect akin to original Telerin, or they may have mostly relied the Common Speech, since they were not too terribly isolated from other peoples, and it may have been a convenient lingua franca among differing Eldarin and Avarian tongues.

The Galadrim used a Sindarin dialect, and it seems likely that a great many of their numbers were Beleriandic. Perhaps more distinct from the main society, there might have also been a small number of High-Elves there, like Galadriel. Possibly a majority were still non–Laiquendi Nandor. Those of more eastern extraction represented a smaller portion than they would have in Thranduil's realm, but possibly were still quite common.

So, in summary, there is gradation and some non-certitude as regards “East-elves” and “Eldar,” which may not have been unacceptable to J.R.R. Tolkien, in this particular case.

These amalgamated realms of elves in Wilderland were also something of an exception to the rule about Elves in general. By the time of the War of the Rings, they were not really fading but rather quite vibrant. Consequently, it was most appropriate that Legolas, rather than a Noldorin lord, was a member of the Fellowship. He was at least partially of Sindarin descent, but he was also of a Third-Age generation from Elven lands that were still significant in the world at that time.

Here is a Family Tree for Eldarion, Aragorn and Arwen's son: (A caution: near the bottom of the chart - where the names Arvedui and Firiel are - you need to reverse the positions of those names. Firiel is the daughter of Ondoher)

I would recommend that you purchase The Atlas of Middle-earth by Karen Wynn Fonstad. Many of the excellent sites for maps on the internet have been visited by legal representatives from the Tolkien Estate and have been asked to close down.

Location: Elvish singing is not a thing to miss, in June under the stars

Posts: 4,396

RATES OF TRAVEL/HORSEBACK ROUTES FOR MIDDLE-EARTH
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Child of the 7th Age

An interesting resource. This is a list of travel times and suggested routes in Middle-earth for travelers on horseback. It's a resource linked to a fanfiction website. I can't vouch for the accuracy of every statement but it looks as if the creator put some time into this.

On FOOT:
3rd infantry: 25 to 30 miles daily;
polish atrocities: 25 to 30 miles daily
bad day: 12 or 15 miles daily
at 3 miles/hour, six hours is 18 miles; 8 hours is 24 miles

Frodo: averaged 17 miles/ day from Bag End to Rivendell; Referred to by Fonstadt as "forced marches".

This from Littlemanpoet:
From the atlas of the journey from Hobbiton to Mordor. On 9/24 Frodo, Sam, and Pippin traveled 24 miles, stopping for supper and walking with Gildor and the Elves. They made 14 miles through the Midgewater marshes in one day (Oct. 3). On Oct. 18 Glorfindel pushed them through the night, on the East Road, and they made 30 miles on foot before they were allowed a 5 hour rest. Then they put in another 20 miles, on road again, the next day. Okay, that's something for on foot.

on HORSEBACK:
Horses:
This from Littlemanpoet:
Gandalf's and Pippin's ride took 3 days and covered 300 miles. (HRW: Incredible feat: only a tremendous athlete (Mearas!) could do this.)
The march of the Rohirrim by horse from Edoras to Minas Tirith had them going about 60 miles a day. (HRW: Another amazing feat. Use as maximum/ extreme.)
With horses swift as the wind: MEARAS or Akhal Teke:
Probe, an emperor of Rome, is known to have been presented with an Akhal-Teke horse that could cover the distance of 150 kilometers a day for up to ten days in a row. ( 1 km = 0.6211 miles ) 93 miles/ day.
Magyars'... horses, relatively small but very strong, had great speed and stamina. Each soldier had 3 or 4 horses, riding them in turn so as not to overtire any of them. Thus the army was able to cover 25 to 30 miles daily for weeks, whereas the western knight-armies rode a maximum of 12 to 15 miles a day for only a few days.
In the year 937, a Hungarian army of 8-10,000 light cavalrymen rode 5,000 miles in ten months. Unmatched achievement in military history, Ferenc Julier, Magyar Hadvezerek.

REGULAR HORSES:
American West: He marched with a large wagon train to carry forage for our horses, for we were to be gone nearly four months, and could not expect to find adequate pasturage along our route. We arose at 3 A. M., marched at 4.30, and halted for camp on the best water we could find, averaging thirty- three miles daily throughout the march.

By contrast:
Paul Revere ... jumped on a horse and began his "midnight ride" to Lexington. In two hours, he covered 13 miles.

SWIMMING:
Very Long Distance, Ocean: World record holder Diana Nyad swam 102.5 miles in "more than two days of nonstop swimming". Over 48 hours... rounding that to 50 hours; that's very roughly 100 mi / 50 hours = two miles an hour. (She crawled out of the water.)

Long Distance Ocean: English Channel: 23.7 miles, but the tide makes it more like 30 or 40 mi; Record is 7.3 hours; average more like 12 hours. Maximum speed: 23 mi / 7.3 hours = 3.3 mi/hr.

Sprinting: (From Guinness book of world records
... The record time for the 100 meter in a 50 meter pool was 48.21 seconds, which means that the average speed was only 2.07 m/s. The record times for the 50 meter and 100 meter races in 25 meter pools were both longer, respectively. A previous speed record set in 1971 by David Holmes Edgar was 5.05 mph (2.26 m/s), slightly less than the speed of Jager in his record setting race. Mark Spitz had an average of 4.367 mph (1.95 m/s) in setting the 100m record in 1972.

This will be a place where I can share some of my non-fiction thoughts regarding Tolkien, his world, and the fanfiction written about it. NEW: Number 10: "Characterization in Fanfic: Using Canon as the DNA for Your Characters" An essay on making the most of canon when constructing your characters.

(Site in progress)

Chapter 1: The Validity of Fanon in Hobbit Fanfiction
Chapter 2: Tolkien's Use of Expletives
Chapter 3: Hobbit Ages
Chapter 4: Gandalf's Visits to the Shire
Chapter 5: The Importance of Being Bilbo
Chapter 6: The Myth of the One Ring's Power
Chapter 7: Hobbit Names and Naming Conventions
Chapter 8: The Shire Calendar
Chapter 9: Are You On the Outside Looking In...or the Inside Looking Out?
Chapter 10: Characterization in Fanfic: Using Canon as the DNA for Your Characters

a ss - (referring to donkey/mule = a stupid, foolish, or stubborn person - not the body part) if you try to put this into your post correctly, the Barrow-Downs' program will asterisk it: ***

Canon reference:

The Return of the King

‘The Houses of Healing’

As Aragorn takes leave of the Houses of Healing:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tolkien

'I know that well, or I would not deal with you in the same way ' said Aragorn. 'May the Shire live for ever unwithered!' And kissing Merry he went out, and Gandalf went with him.

Pippin remained behind. 'Was there ever any one like him?' he said. 'Except Gandalf, of course. I think they must be related. My dear a ss, your pack is lying by your bed, and you had it on your back when I met you. He saw it all the time, of course. And anyway I have some stuff of my own. Come on now! Longbottom Leaf it is. Fill up while I run and see about some food. And then let's be easy for a bit. Dear me! We Tooks and Brandybucks, we can't live long on the heights.'